Thufir Hawat

Thufir Hawat slips into the noon-bright training room at Castle Caladan feeling old, tired and storm-leathered, and his left leg aches where it was slashed in the Old Duke's day. He finds Paul bent over papers and charts with his back to the door, a habit Hawat has warned him against many times.

Hawat has explained Arrakis to Paul. The Harkonnens, the family's mortal enemies, are leaving it after eighty years, which looks like a victory for Duke Leto. Hawat sees the deadliest peril in it, because the Duke's popularity among the Great Houses stirs the jealousy of the powerful.

Among the Harkonnens, Piter expects Hawat to judge, correctly, that Arrakeen is easier to defend than their own Carthag. The Princess Irulan's A Child's History of Muad'Dib credits Hawat with frightening even the Padishah Emperor.